Matter in philosophy: concept, properties and category. Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary What is Matter, what it means and how it is spelled correctly

History of the concept

In the era of the first atomistic concepts of antiquity, matter was understood as a substance, the basis of everything in the world, from which all other bodies in the Universe are “built”. The classic expression of this understanding of matter was the atomism of Leucippus and Democritus. The concept was used by Plato to denote the substratum of things, opposed to their idea. Aristotle recognized the objective existence of matter. He considered her to be eternal, uncreate and indestructible.

In the era of enlightenment in understanding matter, the emphasis shifted to the endlessly evolving diversity of the world in its unity. From this point of view, matter as a substance does not exist "before" and not "alongside" other bodies, but only in this very variety of concrete phenomena and only through them. D. Diderot was a prominent representative of this trend.

Attributes and properties of matter

Attributes and types of matter

The attributes of matter, the universal forms of its existence are motion, space and time, which do not exist outside matter. In the same way, there can be no material objects that would not have space-time properties.

Friedrich Engels identified five forms of motion of matter:

physical;
chemical;
biological;
social;
mechanical.

The universal properties of matter are:

non-creation and indestructibility
eternity of existence in time and infinity in space
matter is always inherent in movement and change, self-development, the transformation of some states into others
determinism of all phenomena
causality - the dependence of phenomena and objects on structural relationships in material systems and external influences, on the causes and conditions that generate them
reflection - manifests itself in all processes, but depends on the structure of interacting systems and the nature of external influences. The historical development of the property of reflection leads to the emergence of its highest form - abstract thinking

Universal laws of the existence and development of matter:

The law of the transition from quantitative changes to qualitative

Forms of motion of matter

Forms of motion of matter - the main types of movement and interaction of material objects, expressing their integral changes. Each body has not one, but a number of forms of material movement. In modern science, there are three main groups, which in turn have many of their specific forms of movement:

in inorganic nature,
- spatial movement;
- movement of elementary particles and fields - electromagnetic, gravitational, strong and weak interactions, processes of transformation of elementary particles, etc .;
- the movement and transformation of atoms and molecules, which includes chemical reactions;
- changes in the structure of macroscopic bodies - thermal processes, changes in aggregate states, sound vibrations and more;
- geological processes;
- changing space systems of various sizes: planets, stars, galaxies and their clusters .;
in wildlife,
- metabolism,
- self-regulation, management and reproduction in biocenoses and other ecological systems;
- interaction of the entire biosphere with the natural systems of the Earth;
- intraorganismic biological processes aimed at ensuring the preservation of organisms, maintaining the stability of the internal environment in changing conditions of existence;
- supraorganic processes express the relationship between representatives of different species in ecosystems and determine their number, distribution zone (range) and evolution;
in society,
- diverse manifestations of people's conscious activity;
- all higher forms of reflection and purposeful transformation of reality.

Higher forms of motion of matter historically arise on the basis of relatively lower ones and include them in a transformed form. There is unity and mutual influence between them. But the higher forms of movement are qualitatively different from the lower ones and are not reducible to them. Disclosure of material relationships is of great importance for understanding the unity of the world, the historical development of matter, for understanding the essence of complex phenomena and their practical management.

Literature

Druyanov L.A. What is matter. - M .: Uchpedgiz, 1961.

Notes

Definitions, meanings of a word in other dictionaries:

Philosophical Dictionary

A material object, as it is known empirically, is not a single existing thing, but a system of existing things. When several people see the same table at the same time, they all see it differently; thus, "this" table, which is supposed to be everything ...

Philosophical Dictionary

In its most general form, it is "being, which itself does not understand being" (J. Ratzinger). In Aristotle: that which is capable of taking shape, the possibility of being. In Plotinus: the limit of the disintegration of all being, its complete "dispersion" to a state that defies any positive description, or ...

Philosophical Dictionary

From the position of materialism, it is primary in relation to consciousness.

From the standpoint of idealism, matter is an arbitrary formation from a spiritual substance. For subjective idealism, matter is a constant possibility of sensation.

There are three concepts of matter:

1. Substantial: matter is defined through things. This concept is implemented by the ancient Greek philosophers (Democritus). They understood matter through matter.

2. Attributive: matter was determined through properties, through primary qualities (mass, dimensions) and through subjective properties, i.e. through secondary qualities (taste, color).

3. Dialectical-materialistic: matter is determined through its relationship with consciousness. The representatives of this concept are Marx, Lenin. Matter is a philosophical category for designating a reality that exists independently of our consciousness and which is copied by our senses. This definition eliminates the contradictions between philosophy and science. This concept emerged in the late 19th century with a breakthrough in scientific knowledge.

Along with the discovery of the electron, materialism collapsed. Matter includes not only substances, but also fields. The main properties of matter are:

· Objectivity.

· Cognition.

· Structurality.

· Substantiality.

Matter exists through discrete material structures, matter does not exist at all. The most important properties of matter are attributes. The main attribute of matter is movement. Movement is the way matter exists. The most important characteristics of the movement:

· Universality.

Versatility

· Objectivity.

· Absoluteness (there are no fixed things).

· Inconsistency (movement is the unity of stability and variability, stability is relative, and variability is absolute).

For Aristotle, motion was external to matter. Matter is a self-propelled reality. In the non-materialistic concept, movement is understood as a manifestation of the objective spirit.

Matter Attributes:

1. Movement exists in 3 forms.

2. Space and time.

The movement exists for three reasons:

and. By carrier

b. By interaction.

in. According to the laws.

There are three main forms of motion of matter:

1.social

2.biological (carriers - cell, organism)

3.chemical (carrier - molecule)

4.physical (vacuum, fields, elementary particles, atoms, molecules, macrobodies, planets, galaxies, etc .; at all the above levels, there are forms of interaction: for example, intermolecular interaction).

The forms of motion of matter are connected by cause-and-effect relationships, a higher form is based on lower forms.

In philosophy, in understanding reality, there is a mechanism approach - reduction of all the laws of the world to the principles of mechanics, the interpretation of a higher reality from the position of a lower reality.

Let's consider other attributes of matter - space and time. It is necessary to distinguish between real, triceptive and conceptual space and time.

Space is a form of being of matter, which characterizes its structure. Time is a form of being of matter, which expresses the duration of its existence. In various forms of motion of matter, temporal characteristics are ambiguous: social, biological, chemical and physical space, time.

Matter

Concretization of the concept of "being" is carried out, first of all, in the concept of "matter". It is clear that the problems of matter, including its concept, were developed primarily by materialist philosophers from ancient to modern. The most complete and profound elaboration of these problems is contained in the works of modern materialists. In materialistic philosophy, "matter" appears as the most general, fundamental category in which the material unity of the world is fixed; various forms of being are considered as generated by matter in the course of its movement and development. The definition of the concept of "matter" was given by V. I. Lenin in his work "Materialism and Empirio-criticism" (1909).

“Matter,” wrote Lenin, “is a philosophical category for designating an objective reality that is given to a person in his sensations, which is copied, photographed, displayed by our sensations, existing independently of them.”

Let's consider this definition in more detail. The category "matter" refers to objective reality. But what does “objective reality” mean? This is all that exists outside of human consciousness and independently of it. So, the main property of the world, fixed with the help of the category "matter", consists in its independent existence, independent of man and of knowledge. In the definition of matter, in essence, the main question of philosophy is solved, the question of the relationship between matter and consciousness. And at the same time the priority of matter is affirmed. It is primary in relation to consciousness. Primary in time, because consciousness arose relatively recently, and matter exists eternally; it is also primary in the sense that consciousness is a historically arising property of highly organized matter, a property that appears in socially developed people.

Matter is primary as the object of reflection is primary in relation to its display, as a model is primary in relation to its copy. But we know that the fundamental question of philosophy has a second side. This is the question of how thoughts about the world relate to this world itself, the question of whether the world is knowable. In the definition of matter, we find the answer to this question. Yes, the world is knowable. In his definition, Lenin emphasizes sensations as the primary source of knowledge. This is due to the fact that in the aforementioned work, Lenin criticizes empirio-criticism, philosophy, for which the problem of sensation was of particular importance. Although, in essence, we are talking about the problem of the cognizability of the world, the cognizability of matter. Therefore, a shorter definition of matter can be given: matter is a cognizable objective reality.

Of course, such a definition is very general and does not indicate any other properties of matter, except for its existence outside and independently of consciousness, as well as its cognizability. However, we have the right to speak about some properties of matter, which have the character of attributes, that is, such properties that are always and everywhere inherent in both all matter and any material objects. These are space, time and motion. Since all things exist in space, move in space, and at the same time the very existence of man and the things surrounding him flows in time, the concepts of "space" and "time" were formulated and used for a long time.

The categories "space" and "time" are among the fundamental philosophical and general scientific categories. And naturally, they are so primarily because they reflect and express the most general state of being.

Time characterizes primarily the presence or absence of the existence of certain objects. There was a time when I was not writing these lines (as well as you, dear reader). We are now. But the time will come when you and I will be gone. The sequence of states: non-being - being - non-being and fixes the category of time. The other side of being is the simultaneous existence of different objects (in our simple example it is mine and yours, reader), as well as their simultaneous non-existence. Time also fixes the relative terms of being, so that for some objects it can be longer (longer), and for others - smaller (less long). In the famous parable from "The Captain's Daughter" by Alexander Pushkin, the lifetime of a raven was determined at three hundred years, and an eagle at thirty. In addition, time allows you to record periods in the development of an object. Childhood - adolescence - adolescence - mature age - old age - all these phases in human development have their own time frames. Time is an integral part of the characteristics of all processes of existence, change, movement of objects, not being reduced to any of these characteristics. It is this circumstance that makes it difficult to understand time as a universal form of being.

The situation is somewhat simpler with the understanding of space, if it is taken in the ordinary sense, as the container of all things and processes. More complex problems associated with the evolution of the physical concepts of space and time will be considered below.

We find a philosophical analysis of the problems of space, time and motion in ancient philosophy. These problems began to be considered and discussed in more detail in science in the 17th century, in connection with the development of mechanics. At that time, mechanics analyzed the motion of macroscopic bodies, that is, those that were large enough to be seen and observed both in the natural state (for example, when describing the motion of the moon or planets), and in experiment ...

Italian scientist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was the founder of experimental theoretical natural science.

He examined in detail the principle of relativity of motion. The movement of a body is characterized by speed, i.e., the size of the path traversed per unit of time. But in the world of moving bodies, speed turns out to be a relative value and dependent on the frame of reference. So, for example, if we are traveling in a tram and walk through the cabin from the back door to the driver's cabin, then our speed relative to passengers sitting in the cabin will be, for example, 4 km per hour, and relative to houses past which the tram passes, it will be equal to 4 km / h + tram speed, for example, 26 km / h. That is, the determination of speed is associated with a frame of reference or with the definition of a reference body. Under normal conditions, for us, such a reference body is "the surface of the earth. But as soon as we go beyond its limits, it becomes necessary to establish that object, that planet or that star, relative to which the speed of the body is determined.

Considering the problem of determining the motion of bodies in general terms, the English scientist Isaac Newton (1643-1727) took the path of maximum abstraction of the concepts of space and time, expressing the conditions of motion. In his main work "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" (1687), he poses the question: is it possible to indicate in the Universe a body that would serve as an absolute reference body? Newton understood that not only the Earth, as it was in the old geocentric systems of astronomy, cannot be mistaken for such a central, absolute reference body, but the Sun, as was accepted in the Copernican system, cannot be considered such. The absolute reference body cannot be specified. But Newton set the task to describe the absolute motion, and not be limited to the description of the relative velocities of the bodies. In order to solve such a problem, he took a step that was apparently as ingenious as it was wrong. He put forward abstractions that were not previously used in philosophy and physics: absolute time and absolute space.

“Absolute, true, mathematical time by itself and by its very essence, without any relation to anything external, flows uniformly and is otherwise called duration,” Newton wrote. In a similar way, he defined absolute space: "Absolute space by its very essence, regardless of anything external, remains always the same and motionless." Newton contrasted with absolute space and time the sensually observed and fixed relative types of space and time.

Of course, space and time as universal forms of the existence of matter cannot be reduced to one or another specific objects and their states. But it is also impossible to separate space and time from material objects, as Newton did. A pure container of all things that exists by itself, a certain box in which you can put the earth, planets, stars - this is what Newton's absolute space is. Since it is motionless, any of its fixed point can become a reference point for determining absolute movement, you just need to check your watch with absolute duration, which again exists independently of both space and any things in it. Things, material objects investigated by mechanics, turned out to be adjacent to space and time. All of them in this system act as independent, in no way influencing each other, constituent elements. Cartesian physics, which identifies matter and space, did not recognize emptiness and atoms as forms of the existence of things, was completely rejected. Advances in the explanation of nature and the mathematical apparatus of new mechanics provided Newton's ideas with a long dominance, which lasted until the beginning of the 20th century.

In the XIX century. the rapid development of other natural sciences began. In physics, great successes were achieved in the field of thermodynamics, the theory of the electromagnetic field developed; the law of conservation and transformation of energy was formulated in general form. Chemistry progressed rapidly, a table of chemical elements was created on the basis of the periodic law. The biological sciences were further developed, the evolutionary theory of Darwin was created. All this created the basis for overcoming the old, mechanistic concepts of motion, space and time. A number of fundamental fundamental provisions on the movement of matter, space and time were formulated in the philosophy of dialectical materialism.

In a polemic with Dühring, F. Engels defended the dialectical-materialist concept of nature. “The basic forms of being,” wrote Engels, “are space and time; being outside of time is the same greatest nonsense as being outside of space. "

In his work Dialectics of Nature, Engels examined in detail the problem of motion and developed a doctrine of the forms of motion, which corresponded to the level of development of science at that time. "Motion," wrote Engels, "considered in the most general sense of the word, that is, understood as a way of existence of matter, as an attribute inherent in matter, embraces all changes and processes occurring in the universe, from simple movement to thinking."

Engels considered simple movement in space to be the most general form of movement of matter, above which, as in a pyramid, other forms are built. These are the physical and chemical forms of motion of matter. The carrier of the physical form, according to Engels, is molecules, and the chemical one is atoms. Mechanical, physical and chemical forms of motion constitute the foundation of a higher form of motion of matter - biological, which is carried by living protein. And finally, the highest form of motion of matter is the social form. It is carried by human society.

"Dialectics of Nature" was published only in the late 1920s and early 1930s. of our century and therefore could not influence science at the time when it was created. But the methodological principles that were used by Engels in developing the classification of the forms of motion of matter retain their significance up to the present time. First, Engels correlates the forms of motion and the forms or types of structural organization of matter. With the advent of a new type of structural organization of matter, a new type of motion appears. Secondly, a dialectically understood principle of development is embedded in the classification of forms of movement. Different forms of movement are genetically linked, they not only coexist, but also arise from each other. The higher forms of motion include the lower ones as components and conditions necessary for the emergence of a new, higher form of motion of matter. And finally, thirdly, Engels strongly objected to attempts to reduce completely qualitatively unique higher forms of movement to lower forms.

In the XVII and XVIII centuries. there was a strong tendency to reduce all the laws of nature to the laws of mechanics. This tendency is called "mechanism". But later, the same word began to denote attempts to reduce biological and social processes, for example, to the laws of thermodynamics. With the emergence of Darwinism, sociologists appeared who were inclined to explain the phenomena of social life by one-sided interpreted biological laws. All these are manifestations of mechanism.

Here we are faced with the contradictions inherent in the development of knowledge, when the features inherent in one type of structural organization of matter are transferred to other types. However, it should be borne in mind that in the course of studying different types of organization of matter and different forms of motion, some general, previously unknown circumstances and patterns are revealed that are characteristic of the interaction of different levels of organization of matter. As a result, theories arise that cover a wide range of objects related to different levels of organization of matter.

Late 19th - early 20th century became the time of a sharp breakdown of ideas about the world - a time when the mechanistic picture of the world, which dominated in natural science for two centuries, was overcome.

One of the most important events in science was the discovery by the English physicist J. Thomson (1856-1940) of the electron - the first intra-atomic particle. Thomson studied cathode rays and found that they consist of particles with an electric charge (negative) and a very small mass. The mass of an electron, according to calculations, turned out to be more than 1800 times less than the mass of the lightest atom, the hydrogen atom. The discovery of such a small particle meant that the "indivisible" atom could not be regarded as the last "brick of the universe." The studies of physicists, on the one hand, confirmed the reality of atoms, but on the other, they showed that the real atom is not at all the atom that was previously considered an indivisible chemical element, of which all things and bodies of nature known to man of that time consist of.

In fact, atoms are not simple and indivisible, but consist of some kind of particles. The first of these was the discovery of the electron. Thomson's first model of the atom was jokingly called "raisin pudding." The pudding corresponded to a large, massive, positively charged part of the atom, while the raisins were small, negatively charged particles - electrons, which, according to Coulomb's law, were held on the surface of the "pudding" by electrical forces. And although this model fully corresponded to the ideas of physicists that existed at that time, it did not become a long-liver.

Soon it was replaced by a model, although it contradicted the usual ideas of physicists, but it corresponded to new experimental data. This is the planetary model of E. Rutherford (1871-1937). The experiments in question were staged in connection with another fundamentally important discovery - the discovery at the end of the 19th century. radioactivity phenomena. This phenomenon itself also testified to the complex internal structure of the atoms of chemical elements. Rutherford used the bombardment of targets made of foil of different metals with a stream of ionized helium atoms. As a result, it turned out that the atom has a size of 10 to the -8 power of cm, and the heavy mass carrying a positive charge is only 10 to the power of 12 cm.

So, in 1911, Rutherford discovered the atomic nucleus. In 1919, he bombarded nitrogen with alpha particles and discovered a new intra-atomic particle, the nucleus of the hydrogen atom, which he called the "proton." Physics has entered a new world - the world of atomic particles, processes, relationships. And it was immediately discovered that the laws of this world differ significantly from the laws of the macrocosm we are used to. In order to build a model of the hydrogen atom, it was necessary to create a new physical theory - quantum mechanics. Note that physicists have discovered a large number of microparticles in a short historical period. By 1974, there were almost twice as many of them as chemical elements in Mendeleev's periodic table.

In search of the foundations for the classification of such a large number of microparticles, physicists turned to the hypothesis that the diversity of microparticles can be explained by assuming the existence of new, subnuclear particles, various combinations of which act as known microparticles. It was a hypothesis about the existence of quarks. It was expressed almost simultaneously and independently of each other in 1963 by theoretical physicists M. Gell-Mann and G. Zweig.

One of the unusual features of quarks should be that they will have a fractional (when compared to an electron and a proton) electric charge: either -1/3 or +2/3. The positive charge of the proton and the zero charge of the neutron are easily explained by the quark composition of these particles. True, it should be noted that physicists have failed to detect individual quarks either in experiment or in observations (in particular, in astronomical ones). I had to develop a theory explaining why the existence of quarks outside hadrons is now impossible.

Another fundamental discovery of the 20th century, which had a huge impact on the whole picture of the world, was the creation of the theory of relativity. In 1905, a young and unknown theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) published an article in a special physics journal under the inconspicuous title "On the electrodynamics of moving bodies." In this article, the so-called special theory of relativity was presented. In essence, it was a new concept of space and time, and accordingly a new mechanics was developed. The old, classical physics was quite consistent with the practice dealing with macro-bodies moving at not very high speeds. And only studies of electromagnetic waves, fields and other types of matter associated with them made us look at the laws of classical mechanics in a new way.

Michelson's experiments and Lorentz's theoretical work served as the basis for a new vision of the world of physical phenomena. This applies primarily to space and time, fundamental concepts that determine the construction of the entire picture of the world. Einstein showed that the abstractions of absolute space and absolute time introduced by Newton should be abandoned and replaced by others. First of all, we note that the characteristics of space and time will appear in different ways in systems that are stationary and moving relative to each other.

So, if you measure a rocket on Earth and establish that its length is, for example, 40 meters, and then from the Earth determine the size of the same rocket, but moving at a high speed relative to the Earth, it turns out that the result will be less than 40 meters. And if you measure the time on Earth and on the rocket, it turns out that the clock will be different. On a rocket moving at high speed, time, in relation to the earth, will flow more slowly, and the slower, the higher the speed of the rocket, the more it approaches the speed of light. This leads to some relations which, from our usual practical point of view, are paradoxical.

This is the so-called twin paradox. Imagine twin brothers, one of whom becomes an astronaut and goes on a long space journey, the other remains on Earth. Time passes. The spaceship is back. And between the brothers there is something like this conversation: “Hello,” says the one who remained on Earth, “I'm glad to see you, but why have you hardly changed at all, why are you so young, after all, thirty years have passed since the moment you left.” “Hello,” the astronaut replies, “and I'm glad to see you, but why are you so old, because I flew only five years.” So, according to the earthly clock, thirty years have passed, and according to the clock of the cosmonauts, only five. This means that time does not flow in the same way in the entire Universe, its changes depend on the interaction of moving systems. This is one of the main conclusions of the theory of relativity.

The German mathematician G. Minkowski, analyzing the theory of relativity, came to the conclusion that it is necessary to completely abandon the idea of \u200b\u200bspace and time as separately from each other existing characteristics of the world. In fact, Minkowski argued, there is a single form of existence of material objects, within which space and time cannot be distinguished, isolated. Therefore, a concept is needed that expresses this unity. But when it came to designating this concept with a word, no new word was found, and then a new word was formed from the old words: "space-time".

So, you have to get used to the fact that real physical processes occur in a single space-time. And it itself, this space-time, appears as a single four-dimensional manifold; three coordinates characterizing space and one coordinate characterizing time cannot be separated from each other. On the whole, the properties of space and time are determined by the cumulative effects of some events on others. The analysis of the theory of relativity required clarification of one of the most important philosophical and physical principles - the principle of causality.

In addition, the theory of relativity encountered significant difficulties in considering the phenomenon of gravitation. This phenomenon defied explanation. It took a lot of work to overcome the theoretical difficulties. By 1916, A. Einstein had developed the General Theory of Relativity! This theory provides for a more complex structure of space-time, which is dependent on the distribution and movement of material masses. The general theory of relativity became the basis on which in the future they began to build models of our Universe. But more on that later.

Astronomy has traditionally played an important role in the formation of a general view of the world. The changes that took place in astronomy in the 20th century .. were truly revolutionary. Let us note some of these circumstances. First of all, thanks to the development of atomic physics, astronomers have learned why the stars shine. The discovery and study of the world of elementary particles allowed astronomers to build theories that reveal the process of evolution of stars, galaxies and the entire Universe. For millennia, the existing ideas about invariable stars have gone down in history forever. The evolving universe is the world of modern astronomy. The point here is not only in the general philosophical principles of development, but also in the fundamental facts revealed to mankind in the XX century, in the creation of new general physical theories, primarily the general theory of relativity, in new instruments and new possibilities of observation (radio astronomy, extraterrestrial astronomy) and, finally , in the fact that humanity has taken the first steps into outer space.

Models of our Universe began to be developed on the basis of the general theory of relativity. The first such model was created in 1917 by Einstein himself. However, later it was shown that this model has shortcomings and was abandoned. Soon the Russian scientist A. A. Fridman (1888-1925) proposed a model of the expanding Universe. Einstein initially rejected this model because he believed that it had erroneous calculations. But later he admitted that Friedman's model as a whole is reasonably well substantiated.

In 1929, the American astronomer E. Hubble (1889-1953) discovered the presence of the so-called redshift in the spectra of galaxies and formulated a law that allows one to establish the speed of motion of galaxies relative to the Earth and the distance to these galaxies. So, it turned out that the spiral nebula in the constellation Andromeda is a galaxy, in its characteristics close to the one in which our solar system is located, and the distance to it is relatively small, only 2 million light years.

In 1960, the spectrum of a radio galaxy was obtained and analyzed, which, as it turned out, is moving away from us at a speed of 138 thousand kilometers per second and is located at a distance of 5 billion light years. The study of galaxies led to the conclusion that we live in a world of scattering galaxies, and some joker, remembering, apparently, Thomson's model, suggested an analogy with a raisin pie, which is in the oven and slowly expands, so that each raisin -the galaxy is removed from all others. However, today such an analogy can no longer be accepted, since a computer analysis of the results of observations of galaxies leads to the conclusion that in the known part of the Universe, galaxies form some kind of network or cellular structure. Moreover, the distribution and densities of galaxies in space differ significantly from the distributions and densities of stars inside galaxies. So, apparently, both galaxies and their systems should be considered different levels of the structural organization of matter.

The analysis of the internal interconnection between the world of "elementary" particles and the structure of the Universe directed the thought of the researchers along this path: "What would happen if these or other properties of elementary particles were different from the observed ones?" Many models of Universes have appeared, but it seems that they all turned out to be the same in one thing - in such Universes there are no conditions for living things, similar to the world of living, biological beings that we observe on Earth and to which we ourselves belong.

The hypothesis of an "anthropic" universe arose. This is our Universe, the successive stages of development of which turned out to be such that the prerequisites for the emergence of living things were created. Thus, astronomy in the second half of the XX century. encourages us to look at ourselves as a product of the multi-billion-year development of our universe. Our world is the best of all worlds, but not because, according to the Bible. God created it in such a way and saw for himself that it was good, but because in it such relations were formed within the systems of material bodies, such laws of their interaction and development that in certain parts of this world conditions for the emergence of life, man and mind could arise. Moreover, a number of events in the history of the Earth and the solar system can be assessed as “happy accidents”.

American astronomer Carl Sagan proposed a visual model of the development of the Universe in time, focused on a person. He proposed to consider the entire time of the existence of the Universe as one ordinary Earth year. Then 1 second of the cosmic year will be equal to 500 years, and the whole year - 15 billion Earth years. It all starts with the Big Bang, as astronomers call the moment when the history of our universe began.

So, according to Sagan's model, out of a whole year of the development of the Universe, our human history accounts for only about an hour and a half. Of course, the question immediately arises about other "lives", about other places in the Universe where life could be, this special form of organization of matter.

The problem of life in the Universe is posed and discussed most fully in the book of the Russian scientist I. Shklovsky (1916-1985) “Universe. A life. Reason ”, the sixth edition of which was in 1987. Most researchers, both natural scientists and philosophers, believe that in our Galaxy and in other galaxies there are many oases of life, that there are numerous extraterrestrial civilizations. And, naturally, before the onset of a new era in astronomy, before the beginning of the space age, many on Earth considered the nearest planets of the solar system to be inhabited. Mars and Venus. However, neither the spacecraft sent to these planets, nor the American astronauts who landed on the Moon, found any signs of life on these celestial bodies.

So the planet should be considered the only habitable planet in the solar system. Considering the stars closest to us within a radius of about 16 light years, which may have planetary systems that meet some general criteria for the possibility of life on them, astronomers have identified only three stars, near which such planetary systems can be. In 1976, IS Shklovsky came out with an article clearly sensational in its focus: "On the possible uniqueness of intelligent life in the Universe." Most astronomers, physicists, and philosophers disagree with this hypothesis. But in recent years, no facts have appeared to refute it, and at the same time, it has not been possible to find any traces of extraterrestrial civilizations. Is that the newspapers sometimes appear "eyewitness accounts" who have established direct contact with aliens from outer space. But this "evidence" cannot be taken seriously.

The philosophical principle of the material unity of the world underlies the concept of the unity of physical laws operating in our Universe. This prompts the search for such fundamental connections through which it would be possible to derive the variety of physical phenomena and processes observed in experience. Soon after the creation of the general theory of relativity, Einstein set himself the task of uniting electromagnetic phenomena and gravity on some unified basis. The task turned out to be so difficult that Einstein did not have enough to solve it for the rest of his life. The problem was further complicated by the fact that in the course of the study of the microworld, new, previously unknown relationships and interactions were revealed.

So the modern physicist has to solve the problem of combining four types of interactions: strong, due to which nucleons are pulled into an atomic nucleus; electromagnetic, repelling like charges (or attracting unlike charges); weak, registered in the processes of radioactivity, and, finally, gravitational, which determines the interaction of gravitating masses. The forces of these interactions are significantly different. If we take the strong as a unit, then the electromagnetic will be 10 to the -2 power, the weak - 10 to the -5 power. and gravity is 10 to the power of -39.

Back in 1919, a German physicist proposed to Einstein to introduce the fifth dimension to unite gravity and electromagnetism. In this case, it turned out that the equations that describe the five-dimensional space coincide with the Maxwell equations describing the electromagnetic field. But Einstein did not accept this idea, believing that the real physical world is four-dimensional.

However, the difficulties faced by physicists, solving the problem of combining four types of interaction, make them return to the idea of \u200b\u200bspace-time of higher dimensions. And in the 70s and 80s. theoretical physicists have turned to the calculation of such a spacetime. It was shown that at the initial moment of time (determined by an unimaginably small value - 10 to the power of -43 s from the beginning of the Big Bang), the fifth dimension was localized in a region of space that cannot be clearly visualized, since the radius of this area is determined by 10 to the power of -33 cm.

Currently, a young professor Edward Whitten is working at the Institute for Higher Research in Princeton (USA), where Einstein lived in the last years of his life, who created a theory that overcomes serious theoretical difficulties that quantum theory and general relativity have faced so far. He managed to do this due to the addition of… six more dimensions to the known and observable four-dimensional space-time.

In ancient times, matter in philosophy was identified with the substance of which the surrounding objects were made. No wonder Aristotle in his "Metaphysics", summarizing the achievements of previous years, wrote that most thinkers of an earlier era considered the beginning of everything some specific substance. It could be stone, water, earth, wood, fire or clay, and so on. They believed that all bodies were made of this primordial substance. Moreover, when objects die, they will turn into this very original substance. This substance Aristotle called the material principle. His main property, he considered that the essence of things changes in its manifestations, but remains. This is how matter was first characterized in the history of philosophy.

Is it a substance?

Due to the fact that the thinkers of the ancient world raised the question of whether the substance of which all bodies are composed is the primary principle, they simultaneously raised the problem of who created it or gave birth to it. In this regard, a theory arose about the substanceality of matter. That is, if all diverse things exist through it, how did it arise by itself?

In the Middle Ages, matter was considered not a substance, but the lowest manifestation of spiritual nature. Every object was then considered the unity of form and substance from which it is made. Only with the advent of modern times the concept of matter in philosophy acquired a new meaning. Benedict Spinoza very clearly defined it as a substance identical to nature, which develops independently, without any external reason. A little later, the English philosopher Berkeley sharply opposed this understanding of matter. He believed that such a substance simply could not exist. We are not even dealing with specific things, but with their perception by our sensations. Thus, we do not encounter matter anywhere - it is a product of the human imagination.

Definition

Nevertheless, in the era of the New Age and the Enlightenment, this problem has become extremely fashionable and relevant. Rene Descartes introduced the concept of matter close to the present in philosophy. He defines it. Matter Descartes calls the substance of self-existent being. Its main attribute is length. In addition, it also has specific properties - to take up any place, have volume and be three-dimensional. Isaac Newton made a great contribution to the development of this concept. He expanded Cartesian definition of substance and expressed ideas about what the properties of matter are in philosophy. He suggested that it has three more attributes - extension, impenetrability (that is, the inviolable unity of the body), then inertia (passivity, inability to independently change speed, according to the laws of dynamics, as well as weight due to the action of gravity). Later, Newton developed his doctrine. He combined inertia and weight into the concept of mass. He also considered the latter as an attribute of matter, as well as a measure of its quantity.

Age of Enlightenment

This period in history was also favorable for the development of understanding of materiality and substance. The category of matter in the philosophy of the Enlightenment is being developed by many thinkers, but the most apt definition is given by Paul Holbach. He writes that this is the name for everything that can be cognized with the help of sensations. The manifestations of matter are the basis of sensory knowledge. This source can be sensations of form, color, taste, sound, and the like. We can say that Holbach brought the understanding of matter to epistemological generalization. At the same time, during this period, the philosophical concept of substanceality disappears. Enlightenment thinkers actually reduced this term to "material substratum." Therefore, for example, Diderot believed that there is no matter as such. It exists only and exclusively in diverse things and objects.

The category of matter in the philosophy of Marxism

Even Helmholtz made the assumption that the main quality of this substance is its independence from our creation. Thus, the existence of matter is objective. Therefore, Helmholtz called so everything that exists independently of man. But this concept has acquired a very high status in materialistic, and especially in Marxist, philosophy. It began to denote the origin of everything, including the spirit.

Matter in the philosophy of Marxism is a term that generally defines a reality independent of us, which is fixed by the human sense organs. However, the later development of physics, which tells us about atoms and elementary particles, called into question this formulation. After all, there are levels of development and existence of matter that our senses do not perceive at all.

What is it?

Now many researchers and scientists doubt that some such substance has a real existence. After all, it is impossible to fix it experimentally. But everyone agrees that matter in philosophy is such a category that it is convenient to designate objects, phenomena and processes of the physical world. Therefore, it is often opposed to the phenomena of spirit or consciousness. It defines the most essential qualities of the real life of the world.

The properties of matter in philosophy are integrity, inexhaustibility, variability, systemic order, and others. With the development of the methodology of modern scientific knowledge, some qualities began to be understood as fundamental. These include consistency. In addition, this concept itself goes through a very difficult path of formation - it is refined, deepened, new facets are opening up.

Attributes and levels

Matter in philosophy exists in time, space and motion. These concepts are its attributes. Any material things and objects are always mobile, located at any point in space and in a certain period of time. Otherwise, they cannot exist. In addition, matter has structural forms of organization. This is primarily the inorganic level. This includes the micro, macro and megaworlds. Then the organic level is distinguished. It covers everything related to wildlife and biological existence. And finally, there is the social level. It takes into account various human communities and individuals - personality, family, tribe, clan, ethnos, nation, group, gender, and so on.

Versatility

The definition known to us from the student's bench has long been criticized by modern thinkers. However, no one has yet come up with a more successful and general definition. Therefore, matter in philosophy is the most convenient way to reflect objectively real being in its universality in a scientific term. It is used when it is necessary to describe a certain substance that cannot be destroyed, it is eternal in time frame and infinite in extent. It develops independently, based on internal reasons, and constantly moves from one state to another. All her bodies, things and phenomena are determined by cause-and-effect relationships, which makes it possible to observe patterns in the processes of their interaction. And this being is studied and continues to be cognized by man.

Of the variety of forms of being, philosophers have always focused on two: material and ideal. Undoubtedly, for philosophy, the most interesting subject of research is man. Philosophers show the specifics of human existence through the opposition of consciousness, the spirit of matter. The concept of "matter", apparently, was born from the desire to reveal the original unity of everything that exists in the world, to reduce all the diversity of things and phenomena to some common, initial basis.

From the history of philosophy, we remember that the role of such a fundamental principle of the world among the ancient Greeks was consistently claimed by water (Thales), air (Anaximenes), the boundless primordial substance "apeiron" (Anaximander), eternal living fire (Heraclitus), all 4 elements (Empedocles), the smallest indivisible atoms (Democritus), Plato's "eidoses" can be enumerated endlessly. Democritus was the most successful of all.

So what is matter?

The category "matter" refers to objective reality. This is all that exists outside of human consciousness and independently of it. In the definition of matter, the main question of philosophy about the relationship between matter and consciousness is solved. Materialists believe that it is primary in relation to consciousness, while idealists believe exactly the opposite.

Philosophical understanding of matter.

Matter (from Lat. Materia - substance) is a philosophical category for designating physical substance in general, as opposed to consciousness or spirit. In materialistic philosophy, the category "matter" denotes a substance that has the status of the origin in relation to consciousness. Matter is reflected by our sensations, existing independently of them (objectively).

The attributes of matter, the universal forms of its existence are motion, space and time, which do not exist outside matter. In the same way, there can be no material objects that do not have space-time properties.

Like matter, space and time are objective, independent of consciousness.

Space is a form of being of matter, which characterizes its length, coexistence and interaction of material bodies in all systems.

Time is a form of being of matter, expressing the duration of its existence, the sequence of changes in the states of all material systems.

Time and space have common properties. These include:

Objectivity and independence from human consciousness;

Their absoluteness as attributes of matter;

Inseparable connection with each other and movement;

The unity of the discontinuous and the continuous in their structure;

Dependence on development processes and structural changes in material systems;

Quantitative and qualitative infinity

The universal properties of matter are:

The non-creation and non-destruction of matter means that the objective world is self-sufficient, that is, no additional forces are needed for its existence. Nobody created matter and nobody can destroy matter.

Eternity of existence in time and infinity in space - means that matter has always been and will always be, that matter has no beginning and no end.

Matter is always inherent in movement and change, self-development, the transformation of some states into others. By motion, I mean not only mechanical movement in space, but also physical and chemical transformations, biological processes, etc. The transition of matter from one form of existence to another (matter-field) is also movement.

Determinism (causality) - the dependence of phenomena and objects on structural connections in material systems and external influences, on the causes and conditions that generate them. Nothing in the material world happens just by chance. Everything is subject to certain laws and the subsequent develops from the previous one.

The uniqueness of matter means that there are no two identical objects in the objective world. Any material object is individual, be it an atom or the universe. In other words, in the material world it is impossible for one object to exist at different points in the universe.

Matter in philosophy: concept, properties and category. Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary What is Matter, what it means and how it is spelled correctly

History of the concept

Attributes and properties of matter

Forms of motion of matter

Literature

Notes

see also

See what "Matter (philosophy)" is in other dictionaries:

Definitions, meanings of a word in other dictionaries:

Is it a substance?

Definition

Age of Enlightenment

The category of matter in the philosophy of Marxism

What is it?

Attributes and levels

Versatility

Philosophical understanding of matter.